Outnumbered in Love
by RomanceLover243
Summary: The Brockman Family are not normal. Not in anyway. Their kids are known as a bit crazy, but now there oldest boy Jake is growing up. When he meets Ellie, they fall for each other immediately. But, with a controlling mother and thousands of miles between them will they be able to stay together through it all... Or will they lose the loves of their lives?
1. Chapter 1

Jake's Point Of View

I walk down the dark dingy corridors to the main hall – another boring wedding is all I need, for one family we seem to go to an awful lot of weddings, I could be texting right now or at least doing something vaguely interesting, but no – I am walking into a room of tables covered in bright pink flowers and a lot of people in dark suits and bright dresses with weird things on their heads that just about resembled hats… I barely knew the people getting married anyway, I think I may have meant the bride once and the groom, well, never. Sure I see why my parents have to go as they actual know them, but I don't. I'm 16, it's not like I couldn't have stayed at home on my own.

I sit down at the table with my evil parents for making me come here, there may be a slight over reaction there, but it's not like I'm going to tell them that, luckily my lunatic brother – Ben and my questioning little sister – Karen are on the little kids table in the corner of the room – I feel sorry for the rest of the children sitting with them. You see I am the only normal person in this whole family (in my opinion anyway) so I am glad my days of sitting on the horrible little tables with stupid little kids that ask annoying questions are over – all my parents friends seem to have a common dislike for children under the age of 13 so they seat them all in the corner of the room where they can't annoy anyone but each other, which is a great relief for everyone else, including me.

At least the food has arrived, that's something. I am about to tuck in when all of a sudden I see a girl about my age (one of the only people in the room) sitting on her own in the corner of the room looking lonely and quite depressed – as I have nothing better to do I go and join her. Maybe this whole day won't be a total loss after all… She is very pretty, with long brunette hair that hangs down to her shoulders. She is wearing a loosely hanging peach dress with a lacy collar that hugs her in the right places, but is not revelling like most of the other dresses here. All in all she looks stunning.

"Hi – Jake - -"I say awkwardly sticking my hand out hoping that she will understand what I am trying to say, I remember someone telling me that it was always better to be upfront about stuff, I don't expect they thought I would us their advice in a situation like this, but, what can you do? What would you expect and awkward teenaged boy to be like anyway…

"Oh… um… hi… I'm Ellie" she said after obviously not seeing me walking up to her. I talk to her asking her about how she knows the couple getting married, (in theory I am the Brides not sure what relation and as she is about 10 years older than be, I don't hold her to it…) She told me that the grooms younger sister was one of her best friends, but she had got ill the day before so she couldn't come which is why she was alone… If that was me I wouldn't have come at all, but she said she wanted to congratulate the couple anyway and that she would have felt bad not coming at all after they had given her a seat and food and everything, a kind thing that I know my family wouldn't have done.

In the end it turned out that almost her whole table had bailed on her as none of them knew here so she was sitting on her own anyway and with my desperate urge to get away from my parents meant I could sit next to her! Yay! I hate to admit it but I didn't sit next to her just to get away from my parents… I may have had another little motive.

As we finish eating our smoked salmon and buttery vegetables she begins to speak to me more about the snotty all-girls private school she goes to or more like forced to got to as she told me, I mean she told me she didn't want to go in the first place so I don't see why she had to go and the fact that her parents had fought a lot and then got divorced - I was extra sensitive on that subject… I know that I would be horrified if my parents were getting divorced; it did almost happen before… but that another story.

Ben's POV

"Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored! I am so bored. You know those people that have to stay in prison all their lives and have nothing to do but read old books that have worms and stuff living in them. I am a hundred times more bored than they are. Hey, Karen you know when you are really really bored, yeah? Well that's me right now!" I say to Karen hoping to ease my terrible pain by annoying her as much as humanly possible.

We have been here for hours now, and all we have done is sit in a church while old people cry and then walk from the church to the reception – now there is nothing to do but to eat these smelly sticky carrots… Karen is half asleep and just nods along, talking to Jake would be more fun that trying to talk to her at least we talk about interesting stuff even if we do end up disagreeing about it, so I look across the room at the silly old people table (I still can't sit there for ages and ages and ages because apparently I am very immature for my age or whatever those stupid adults say, not that we have wedding that often but still…)

I look around for another few minutes when I see Jake, talking to a girl! A real girl! This is one of my favourite things to do, mess with Jake, mess with his 'relationships' as he calls them. He always seems to fall for it so easily and as long as I don't cause any long term damage, he got really cross when he thought I had caused the brain damage. Hopefully I shouldn't get into too much trouble. I mean what harm can a little prank do? Time for a bit of fun I think, as I shake Karen a bit to wake her up before putting our plan in to action…

Karen's POV

After I finally come back around from my half asleep state. I really as so bored I fell asleep, properly asleep. I have never even meant these people and I think the last time Jake meant them he was two and that was almost fourteen years ago! I bet given a bit of time I could have convinced Mum and Dad to let Jake take care of us at home. I turn my focus back to Ben as I begin to listen to what he was saying something about a prank I think…

I giggle loudly as I hear what Ben is going to try to do to Jake, if this doesn't make today for fun nothing will, I am definitely not missing this – I am going to enjoy this prank… Most of the time Ben and I really don't get along, but we have real bonding time over annoying Jake.

Stealthily, I sneak under the adults table, and look for Jake's shoes, I get a massive stink of sweaty feet, and a lady on the other side of the table to Jake has taken her shoes off (Gross! Who takes their shoes off at a wedding?). When I find Jake's feet I quickly tie the laces together (It wasn't hard, the boys were converses everywhere he goes) I have become quite skilled at this after trying to learning to do it for six days straight with a wooden block and some borrowed shoe laces from Dads face leather shoes, it wasn't like he wore them a lot anyway, only to really big events so I didn't know why he got so angry – he was really not happy when I tied them so tight we had to use scissors to cut them off. Let's say when I start on something, I don't stop until I can do it - all I have to do now is get out from under the table and tell Ben that the target is really… I sound like a hit man and I like it. I think that could be a good future job. Karen Brockmen – Hit woman!

Jake's POV

I am still chatting away to Ellie when I think I her something under that table, I ignore it, I don't want to see like a paranoid freak in front of Ellie thinking that someone is under the table, I think it is all the years, living with Ben and Karen have done that too me. After I got out of hospital for the second time I flinched every time they came near me for almost a year. That really was one of the worst birthdays of my life. Actually, that was one of the worst experiences of my life in general. So I am pretty sure that it is just my senses messing with me, I really want to impress her and being weird is not going to help my case, turns out I really like this girl…

All of a sudden I hear someone sneaking up behind me tip-toeing along (living with my sidling's my hearing has grown very strong – you never know when the next attack will be and I get the feeling this will be one of them) I begin to turn around when I feel an ice cold – something, go down the back of my shirt, in shock I try to scream but begin so cold so suddenly - I panic, I try to take a step forward, but my feet won't go and I realise a few seconds later that my shoes have been tied together as I hit the floor – hard. Bloody hell, my head is ringing…

Sara's (Jake, Karen and Ben's Mum's) POV

I saw Ben sneaking up on Jake and I knew something was going to go very wrong (Ben always did this when Jake was trying to talk to a pretty girl, last time it was Lucy, and left when her new shoes were ruined with the dog sick, and the time before that it was Melissa and the badger poo… her father tried to sue us.) it was never fair for Jake, he was only trying to impress a girl, he would dress up all nice and take her out somewhere nice, but then Ben would appear out of nowhere and ruin it. The only time one of his 'girlfriends' lasted more than a week was when Ben was on camp. Let's say Jake finally left his room after a couple of days and we had to get him a new phone number because of all the hate he was getting for the girl and her friends. That was a bad week for Jake.

I could tell something like this would happen again and boy was I right…

I tried to catch Jake but I was falling to fast and as he hit the floor with a massive crack, I was about to help him up when I saw so blood come out of cheek and I began to panic, I can't cope with another trip to hospital this, we only got Ben back this weekend after one of his bonfires, he was lucky not to get worst burns. Jake enjoys telling him that he is a pyromaniac and then watching the confused look on his face as he tried to work out what it meant. Well, at least until he googled it…

Back to Jake, he tried to get up and managed it with a bit of help for Ellie who was at his side in a second flat, how cute! A little moan escaped his mouth as he regained him balance on to rather shaky feet, by now the whole reception was staring at Jake with his cut cheek "I tripped" he says simply and everyone goes back to their meals without any argument or even an 'Are you okay?', I thought it was a little mean but hey it was a rather good save for almost certain public humiliation.

But after years of experience at making up excuses for Ben and Karen's pranks all the family is rather good at it… Though I tripped, is not the best excuse ever.

Ben's POV

Oooppppppps e daisy – I only meant for a bit of a laugh, make him trip and them we who all laugh about it later, not for him to fall really hard and cut his face open, I think this is probably the third worst injury I have ever given him only after the broken leg and the dislocated jaw. Not that I mean to give him those either, all of these things happen by mistake. I wish more people understood that, because I know that I am going to get a proper clobbering when we get home, if not before.

He is really going to kill me now, mum is going to kill me after Jake is done with me and today is just going to get worse! I walk over to Jake who is talking to Ellie as she puts a massive plaster over him cheek and tells him how brave he his – he is enjoying that immensely, maybe a little too much – someone's got a crush… Maybe this day could get a bit better. I can mock him whilst he is killing me!

"Hi Jake, look, I am really sorry and I really didn't mean to hurt you or anything, Karen and I were just really really bored and we wanted something to do and – "I say before begin cut off by Jake, I was expecting to get a punch or at least something, but what came out of his mouth next really confused me…

" Look, it's fine, I am just as bored as you are so don't worry and anyway – my cheek will heal, it's just a cut" He says calmly. Too calmly for my liking.

I was very surprised and I mean really heart attack surprised, I expected him to rip my head off. I thought I had gotten out of the woods but then, when he leaned closer to me he whispered in my era "You will pay for this you little toad, if you have ruined my chances with Ellie , I will actually kill you…" I knew it was too good to be true, but he must really like that girl to be nice to me for her… I am beginning to wish that I hadn't scared off all of those other girls before if this is how he behaves when he is around them, it could have really worked in my favour.

Jake's POV

Be strong, don't cry – everything will be fine, though I will probably need stitches (again, my ankle never really healed after Ben and that stun gun. I still don't know how he got that thing.) "Oh goodness! Jake are you ok? Stupid question, of course you're not, poor you…" Ellie says to me, I love the way she speaks, adding little side notes to herself as she goes alone… it's like she is trying to have a convocation with herself "Yeah, I'm Ok, you get used to my brothers and sisters pranks after 16 years of it. I've had worse…" I reply, biting my lip to stop myself bursting into tears (I'm such a wimp, I know, but hey my face felt like it was about to fall off) "Well, I think you are the bravest person in this room" she whispered in my ear before giving me a kiss on my good cheek…

If every time Ben hurt me I got this kind of treatment, it may be something I could get used to. Just maybe…

**A.N.**

**New story! Outnumbered is probably my favourite TV show of all time (apart from maybe 'Friends'. And I've had this story written up for ages. It was on Wattpad, but I took it down, so it's here now!**

**I hope you enjoy...**


	2. Chapter 2

Karen's POV

Ooooooo disgusting! That poor girl just kissed Jake! Who would want to do that? I wouldn't want to kiss him and he's my brother, that's horrible! I know we almost killed his face with our 'little' prank but I don't that is a reason for a girl to kiss him. I would avoid kissing him even if my life depended on it, stupid smelly boy, most of the time I want to stay away from him anyway.

I lean over and pull Ben's sleeve, then point over at Jake – as he turns bright red and a silly grin spreads over his face which vanishes quickly when his cut starts to bleed again, I suppose I do feel a little bit bad, a little - maybe, I burst out laughing and he sends me a look (I now understand the expression 'if looks could kill') but I know he won't deal with me now, not while he is trying to impress fancy-pants kissy face girl…

Jake gives her a strange looking hug, and as soon as he pulls away from her the speaker next to me starts to boom and a girly voice rings out hurting my ears; "I hope everyone is enjoying themselves – we are going to start doing the wedding film so can everyone come to the floor with a partner to do the slow dance!" It was the bridezilla of all bridezillas with her stupid high voice that I am sure could break glass, making us dance in pairs! I am eight, I shouldn't need to dance with any stupid old boy, all boys are stupid!

I look around wondering who on earth a 8 year old girl is going to dance with at a wedding were she only knows her family, when I see Ben laughing behind me, "May I have this dance, Miss Ugly?" he asks me putting on a funny fake voice "I would be delighted you smelly young sir!" I reply in my very best princess voice as we have a race towards the dance floor, just as we get there I pull in front to win the race – in your face Ben! He should know that I am faster by now, but he never gives up trying.

Pete's POV

Looks like things could be looking up for Jake – finally. When he was younger and he would talk to girls being all cool and I would look up to him (not that I would tell Sue that) I would notice that I would never have done that when I was 12 or 13 or something. Anyway that girl he is with looks nice I would have thought she is a bit out of his league, but I suppose I am only saying that because I don't want him to get hurt by someone when they think that have found someone better. Ben has messed it up every time he has tried to get a girlfriend by scaring them away or well, putting them on hospital…

It would be nice for him to catch a break, it's sad really almost 16 and never had a proper girlfriend – maybe, third time lucky with this girl..? Or it firth time, maybe, seventh – I am having a little bit of trouble keeping count… Tough I think that Ben may have a tally chart in his room that most of the family refer to when wondering how many girlfriends Jake has had, how many dead animals he has found and any other gruesome facts you may need to know about Ben and his experiments.

Jake's POV

Of all the things I could be asked to do at a wedding they choose ballroom dancing in pairs, Bridezilla even gave us dancing lessons so we would be up to scratch and at the top of our game or whatever on the day! She even paid for us all to go to this stupid dance studio all weekend to make sure we were good enough for her wedding.

None of us want to go anyway, I really don't know what I am going to do about a partner, maybe I could ask Ellie, I shouldn't, but I could… No, she probably has someone to dance with already, hell; she probably has a boyfriend already. Stupid brain, getting ahead of its self, again, this always happens to me.

To hell with it then…

"Ummm, hey Ellie, I was wondering, I mean if it isn't too much to ask, I was just asking, if it's ok, umm, you don't have to say, yes—"I tried to ask "You are trying to ask me to dance with you, you are worried I will say no, and that I will think you are trying to hard when you aren't and I would be very happy to dance with you, you handsome boy!" she replies while laughing at me

She gives me one of her 'I know what you are thinking and I feel like messing about with your head' looks. I swear she can read my mind, but hey, I don't care. She is going to dance with me and she called me handsome – I feel like doing a little happy dance around the room, but I don't because that would look, well, stupid, so I do a little tiny one inside me head!

I think I may be a teenage girl inside.

She snaps her fingers in front of my face a couple of times to get me out of my happy dance trance (he that rhymed) before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the dance floor, but all I can think about are the last words she said 'you handsome boy'… She thinks I am handsome – I defiantly sound like a teenage girl – who likes to think they are handsome. I think I am suffering from concussion.

Ellie's POV

I grab Jakes hand and pull him towards the dance floor hoping he got the enjoyed hearing my last words to him, as we get _another_ briefing on how to dance and were to stand – I feel more like I am in an army regiment than at a wedding! The rude old cow even tell poor Jake to make sure he keeps his cut cheek out of the shoot because it will spoil the _effect, _whatever that is meant to be?

It's a picture that will go in some crummy old photo album and only seen once every century and anyway it's a wedding, the effect should be the couple are in love or something like that, I don't know… I thought it was meant to be something cute and cuddly about love or something. But she has gone completely insane (she put all the brides' maids on a diet and everything!). I have no idea how the groom can actually be willing to marry her. I am wanting to cut her head off and put into on a spick at the tower of London – no marry it!

We get up onto the dance floor and the music starts "Remembered! The three most important things smile, look into your partners eyes and most important, get all the steps right!" Bridezilla shouts to us all with an insane glint in her eye, I see Jakes parents to the right (his dad constantly stepping on his mums toes but she doesn't seem to notice or if she does she is a very good actress or at very least very good at pretending not to notice) and even Ben and Karen on the other side of the room! They are so cute, maybe this could be quite fun…

The song continues and I begin to get lost in Jake's bluey-greeny eyes as we dance, I can see why people like dancing, I begin to come aware of people around me, I hear the bride to the left of me telling the groom to "Stop getting the steps wrong!" but I just continue to look into Jake's eyes as the song draws to a close…

The song begins to end and Jake and I have finished at the very back of the dance floor, I take an extra step towards him and he leans in closer to me ducking a bit (I wish I was another inch and a half taller to be honest – but what can you do?) he is so close to me now I can feel his breath tickling my nose when suddenly the loud voice of the bride booms over the speaker system forcing Jake and I to pull apart (shame, I know) "thanks everyone that's a rap..!" She shouts. Jake leans towards me and I think he is about to kiss me but he whispers in my ear "I owe you" before giving me a wink and going to find his family without another word.

Feeling flustered I walk slowly back to my table trying to understand what he had meant, I think he might have scrambled my brains. After a few minutes of thinking hard and staring into space I realise what he meant… So close but so far, and but I won't forget the 'I owe you' though; I will save it for a special occasion. Shame the day is nearly over though.

Seeing Jake's mum sitting down, I slowly walk up to her wanting to know a bit more about Jake… this could be interesting.

Sue's (Jake, Ben and Karen's Mum) POV

I watch as a girl comes over to me, the same girl that Jake has been with the whole day and the same girl he was dancing with. She is quite short, but not to short and had what seemed a permanent smile on her face, an optimistic one we have her.

"Hi, I'm Ellie, Jake's friend, wait, you are Sue Brockmen aren't you?" I nod in approval

"Well, I was just wondering, where in Manchester do you live?" She asked again looking rather unsure of herself.

I liked this girl all ready, not afraid to ask questions and very bright – but I do wish Jake wouldn't get so friendly with girls, he's only 16 – am I a bit over protective of is it just me? I really don't want him to get hurt again like with all the others. He seems to get too attached too quickly and it has never ended well for him and most of the time, it has not ended well for the girl either.

"Well, currently, we are living in the hotel up the road from here." I reply to her, wondering if she will get what I really mean.

Look at her face change, you could practically see her brain ticking away exactly how I do with Jake, (it's almost like you can see the cogs in his brain turning and it's the same with her) before greeting me with a surprised look.

"If you don't live here where do you live? Sorry about all the questions." She asked politely, looking at me worriedly as if I am about to jump at her and smack her in the face for asking too many questions.

"Its fine and we live in London, we are just up her for the wedding" I say to her.

She thanks me for the '_information'_ and goes off to find Jake again…

Ellie's POV

Yes! London! So glad they are from London! I am moving there in exactly 6 days and about 5 hours – not that I am keeping count or anything like that. It isn't that I really where I currently live with all my hate because my Dad left when we lived there and because my Mother locks me in rooms there. No that not true at all.

With the though I feel my eyes beginning to well up so I quickly brush them off and continue to look for Jake. I want to know more about where he lives; I feel a bit rude asking all those questions to his mum about where they live. I know that London is a very big city and that is very lightly that we could end up never actually seeing each other, but I am hoping some where someone in the universe is looking out for me all I want to do it to get to see him again! I may not be a loner forever!

It's a nice feeling knowing that at some point in my life I might be able to have proper friends that don't go and dump you at a wedding like Hannah did, I thought she would at least come to her Brother's wedding but she just told me that she couldn't come and then hung up the phone as if she was saying that she was going for a walk or something really unimportant. I just wish she could have been a bit nicer about it…

Jake's POV

Of all the times we could have left in the whole day they chose now, only a few minutes after I almost kissed Ellie, we have to go. Mum had just called me over saying that Ben had got to a bottle of beer and was now climbing up the walls – literally.

I walk up to Ellie from behind, I think she is looking for me from the look on her face, but it is hard to tell as I am well, behind her. I quickly tap her on the solder and she whips around to see me standing there with a goofy smile on my face. I mention for her to walk with me as I begin to talk to her.

"Hey, look, I'm really sorry about this but I have to go home, Ben has gotten himself drunk in God knows what, but will you call me?" I say to her as we walk towards the door.

She says she will call, but as we get out of the door and almost round the corner when I hear her shout to me "Wait, I don't have your number!" with a little smile I know she does, two can at the whole messing with your head thing.

We all got into the taxi to go back to the hotel and I knew what was coming next

"Who was that girl you were with Euy, is she your girlfriend? Do you want to snog her? Kissy kissy kissy" Ben askes while laughing like a drunk – oh yeah, he is one…

"It's none of your business you toad! I still haven't got you back for that little thing you did, oh, what was it? Oh yeah that's it, cutting my face open!" I reply sarcastically getting really worked up; it was none of his business. I don't understand with families why that always assume that everything that happens to you is their business.

"Oh come on Eu, we only want to know about your new girlfriend!" Dad asked trying to make the request sound casually, when I can tell he is really just as eager to know as Li.

"Yeah Jake!" Mum butted in. trying to take control of the situation

"Shut up all of you! It's not of any of your business, she is not my girlfriend, I don't think, she is just a girl, who's a friend, just leave me alone! Or is that beyond your brain power" I shoot back having enough of this convocation.

I was hoping the ordeal I call talking to my family was over and that I had gotten away with my tiny little outburst when Ben Stars singing;

"Jake and Ellie sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g! First comes a date, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in the baby's carriage!" Ben sings loudly out of the window of the taxi – yes, out of the window out onto the street. I can't believe this boy! Sometimes I really do wonder why I live with him, but then I remember it is because I have too.

That was it! I punched him in the stomach, he winced a bit a moaned and bit (I always forgot my own strength, all in all I think I am pretty well built and quite muscular – I suppose that's a good thing really; I don't mind the extra strength!) But the next minute, Ben hit me back, punching me in the face ripping my cut deeper across my face, I feel the most horrific pain before beginning to blacking out. Turns out that I am not the only one who didn't know his own strength and hey Ben is one of the biggest twelve year olds I have ever seen… Almost as tall as me even with the age difference.

I feel a couple of wet streaks falling down my face as the pain over whelms me, I fall back against the cab seat before the car pulls over and I am puller out gently but who I think is dad.

I vaguely hear the taxi driver saying something about the dry cleaning of the seats because of blood stains and Dad on the phone to an ambulance, but apart from that I am not really sure of anything around me. All the colour around me is dulling and becoming less eye-catching before fading into a black nothingness and all my senses just shut off completely.

I am not really sure what is going on, the last thing I remember is being slapped and then blinding pain, everything around me is black, I try to open my eyes but my first attempt is useless – my whole face is killing me and I can't move any of my muscles, but I still can't while remember what happened.

I wonder how long I have been asleep. Reaching into the mystery of my memory and think of Ellie – she was so beautiful and although I have been away for however long I have been unconscious, I really miss her, not that I would tell Mum, Dad, Ben or Karen though, especially Ben… I seem to remember him playing some part in this.

Slowly I open my eyes with a lot of effort to see mum, dad, Karen and Ben leaning over me. "Where am I?" I ask blinking constantly – trying to adjust my eyes to the light in my bright and white walls of the hospital room, wait what? Hospital room? I am about to ask another set of questions but as I open my mouth I feel a shooting pain all through my face.

"Shhh, don't talk, you are in hospital you had to have stitches in your cheek were Ben hit you, you lost a lot of blood and you have been asleep for about 2 days so you are almost completely healed! We should be able to take you home later" mum said to me.

Two days, really two days, they tell me that I had been in some sort of medicated coma to stop the pain in my face stopping me from getting any rest.

Everyone leaves the room saying there is paper work to be done so I can leave when Ben come's to sit next to me and says "Hi Jake, I'm really sorry about the whole almost killing you from loss of blood thing and making you have stitches, I am honestly really sorry and I didn't mean for you to get hurt, but by the way, you got like 3 texts from Ellie-"

I sit up as look for my phone on the bed side table and scowl at my inability to find it "Where is it?" I ask Ben angrily

"Ohh - it's here" He says pulling it out of his pocket

I look at him suspiciously before taking my phone out of his hand and going to the messages, I am glad to see none of the have been opened, everything Ben has told me just washed off the back as I read the texts El sent me, the first one reads;

"Hey Jake, I worried that I didn't have your number, it was really sneaky of you to add yourself to my contacts when I wasn't looking… I will get you back for this you know :P"

This leaves me laughing, I did say that I would get revenge for the whole messing with your head thing before the day was done…

The second reads;  
Anyway - really enjoyed tonight, will I be seeing you again? Xx"

That gave me a smile, that girl must be one of the nicest in the world, I was glad she hadn't heard about the whole crying and fainting thing, I don't want her to thinks that I am a complete sissy, but as I read the 3rd message my heart sinks;

"OMG - I heard what happened to you, Ben your brother (I think) text me on your phone. He's a bit of an odd ball isn't he...? Anyway, I really hope you get better, when you do and I move to London you have got to come round to mine xx! Please reply to this when you get it, I need to know that you are okay, c u soon"

That made me smile as I lean into my bed and begin to text her back the heroic story about how I passed out and maybe missing out the bit of the story were I cry.

Though Ben being _a bit _of an odd ball is the understatement of the century…

**A.N.**

**Second chapter... **

**Also thanks for pointing out that I got Sues name wrong, I went throguh some name changes a while a go so I could post this somewhere else, just not a a fan fiction. **

**I hope you enjoyed...**


	3. Chapter 3

(Gwen (Ellie's Mum's) POV)

I am getting cross with her. Really cross.

All she does is write stupid texts on her phone when she should be packing or studying, I want her doing something productive with her time. Tonight it one of our last nights in Birmingham before we move to London and all she is doing is tell someone I don't know something that they probably don't need to know and it is doing my head in.

I never should have let her buy it, but if she saves up for things, I don't have any power. It's not like she even gets pocket money from me… it's her stupid father, my ex-husband. He barely ever visits but when he does, he litters her with presents and quite often ridicules amounts of money. I will have to have a word with him.

Anyway, I still don't even know who she is texting, at school she has never had very many friends and that's just the way I want to keep it. No distractions from her work – just the way it should be. She has one friend who I don't like very much, I think her name is Hannah or something like that, I don't really care.

I think I have finally got them to stop being friends after I forces her to ditch Ellie at that wedding she invited her to, I don't think that they will be talking to each other for a little while, so now all I have to do is to work out who she is texting and stop that and then it will be plain sailing.

Its currently eleven o'clock at night and I sent Ellie up to bed over 2 hours ago, so she should be asleep by now, I slowly walk up to her room careful to avoid the creaky floor boards on the stairs and creep into her room. I see her asleep on her bed, and surprise surprise, there is the damned phone in her hand, and luckily it is still unlocked. She must have just fallen asleep.

I go to the bit of her pone that says 'sent messages', where there is a list of her last messages it reads;

Jake – 22:56

Jake – 22:34

Jake – 22:11

Jake – 21:30

Hannah – 21:04

Jake – 20:51

Hannah – 20:42

Jake – 20:33

Now all I need to know is who 'Jake' is…

It must be him she has been texting all time. Him. Him. A boy… this is defiantly not going to end well. I am not having my 16 year old daughter getting… involved… with a boy. I just need to know a bit more about him.

I start clicking more and more buttons on her phone looking through all of the messages they have sent to each other, according to some of the earlier ones it sounds like he may have hurt himself and been in hospital, I can also gather that he lives in London and that they met over a month ago…

The phone suddenly buzzes in my hands making me jump, I see there is a message from 'Jake' and quickly click it opens to see what it says. It reads;

'Hey babe, R U ok, u didn't reply… Oh well u probs feel asleep, C U soon Hun. Xxxx'

He called her babe… what does that even mean? Is that meant to be some form of current greeting or something? No one called anyone that when I was Ellie's age, I thought a babe was another word for a baby – who would want someone to call them a baby, a weak reliant little person who cries at everything – I know I wouldn't, youth nowadays, completely different to how they were when I was young. All I was worried about was doing well in Exams and buying the newest books with the money I had earned myself from baby sitting and looking around the pets of people that lived in our village.

But there is one thing that I know… There is no why she is getting away with this.

I don't understand how she thinks she can get away with not telling me this! I am her Mother! She can't keep secrets from her own Mother! I am going to interrogate her in the one place she can't escape, the drive up to London, she either ups up or she could be going hungry. And we can't have that happening… not again.

(Ellie's POV)

I can already tell that Mother is getting annoyed with me texting Jake, but hey, I don't really care, I should be able to text my friends (if that's what we are) whenever I like and shouldn't have to ask mummy's permission. I have never done it in the past and I am not about to start it now, even though every time in the past it has ended in complete disaster with her punishing me – but I am determined to make a stand at some point in my life.

Now that I don't have Hannah as a friend I really want to keep Jake. Soon, we will be living in London and apparently we will be living a few streets down from him. It's so weird, I know that London is such a big city and by chance I am moving into the same borough as the boy I kind of have a crush on – though to be honest, I think that '_kind of have a crush on_' may be a bit of an understatement.

All I have done today is pack, do extra school work and text Jake – hey, I've got to have some form of a life that doesn't revolve around school work. If it wasn't for my phone, I would be a work slave at the mercy of my own mother…

We are moving in about a day so I really need to work to get my room 100% sorted, all I need to do now is finish putting all of my clothes in boxes and that won't be too hard bearing in mind that I barely ever get the chance to buy clothes so I don't have very many. I survive on the money my Dad gives me – which is an ample amount – it's just I never get enough time to actually go out and spend it, let alone any method to get me there.

It's not too long before I get all packed up but it does take a little bit longer due to the fact that I have been texting Jake the whole time and that really does slow things up a bit. He did though invite me to dinner at his house when I get to London, so that should be really nice – that's if Mother will let me go and I don't think that that is very lightly. Sometimes I really wished that she would just lighten up a bit.

It's now about 9 o'clock and Mother is already calling for me to go to bed, so I quickly jump into my pyjamas and brush my teeth (yes – I am a total goody-goody and do literally everything my Mother says I should do exactly when she tells me to do it) before getting into bed and continue to text Jake about who knows what, but why does it matter what we are talking about, as long as I get to talk to him I am happy as Larry – and Larry is one happy lad.

After that it doesn't take me too long to fall asleep, I think I am about half way through a text when I feel my eye lids getting heavy and myself slowly falling into the land of nod.

The last thing I remember before falling asleep is my bedroom door being opened and my phone slipped out of my hands, before falling into a sleep, full of dreams of Jake and a life without Mother. More like dreams about heaven.

I wake up bright and early the next morning really for the 5 hour car journey from Birmingham to London in Mothers beat-up old red ford – with no air conditioning. I search around a little bit for my phone before finding it on my bed side table – defiantly not where I left it. But I push the thought to the back of my mind, not wanting to be worrying for the rest of the day about where my phone got magically transported to in the night whilst I was asleep, anyway, it was probably aliens and they wouldn't want me worrying (I don't think). Especially if I am going to be in a car with Mother the whole time – yay!

I quickly get into the clothes I left out last night and grab my backpack that has my phone, purse and all of those basic things. Before running down stairs to see my flustered looking Mother in the empty kitchen tapping her foot and staring intently at her watch as if she was expecting it to explode at any moment.

"Goodness Ellie! What's wrong with you! You should have been down here ages ago! I was about to come up there and pull you out of bed. The man with the keys is coming at 8:30 and I wanted you to get up ages ago!" she shouts at me, her voice laced with venom.

"I'm sorry, Okay? But I don't understand what I did wrong, it's only 8:00 now… We have loads of time." I reply warily, not wanting to get on the wrong side of her before we had even gotten into the car.

"Look, I can't deal with you today. You have been a total pain all week and I hope you know that, so just don't even think of talking to me until we get into that car." She reply's angrily.

I walk out of the room with tears already falling down my cheeks; I just can't cope with it when my mum acts like this. Telling me horrible things that I always end up believing because I have nobody to tell me otherwise, it leaves me feeling upset and lonely for the rest of the day and I always end up crying. I really wish I wasn't so sensitive. Life would be so much easier if I could just shut off all my emotions and just be a shell… It may not be perfect, but it would be a hell of an improvement that's for sure.

I always used to think that my Mum was going to be someone I could tell my problems to, but in reality she goes on and on to me about her own problems. When I tell her what's going on with me, she always ends up making it worst and making me feel bad. But maybe it's just me? At least that's what she always tells me.


End file.
